


Sugar Cookies

by biscuitsandgravy



Series: Baking with Nagisa [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Makoto is the best listener, One-Sided Attraction, Rei is only mentioned in passing, one-sided reigisa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 10:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3526220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biscuitsandgravy/pseuds/biscuitsandgravy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Makoto gives Nagisa some advice for his relationship (or lack thereof) and Nagisa gives Makoto baked goods. Takes place after episode 4 of Eternal Summer, but before episode 5.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sugar Cookies

“Now that we’re done training for the day, I need a favor!” Nagisa announced to Haruka and Makoto as they all showered.

 

Makoto looked at Haruka nervously; Haru’s eyebrows were raised in a skeptical way. No one ever knew what to expect when Nagisa asked for a favor. At best, Nagisa’s requests were strange, and at worst they were embarrassing.

 

“What do you need, Nagisa-kun?” Mako asked apprehensively.

 

“No need for the scared look, Mako-chan! I just need a taste tester!” Nagisa said cheerfully, as if _that_ would assuage Makoto’s fears.

 

“What do you need tasted?” Makoto asked, still worried. Haruka, however, apparently decided it wasn’t anything that concerned him, and had continued rinsing himself.

 

“You’ll see when you come over, won’t you, Mako-chan?” Nagisa winked, turning off the shower head. Makoto sighed as he toweled himself off.

 

“Wouldn’t it be best if Haru came with me? For that matter, wouldn’t it be best if we were all here?” Makoto was grasping at straws by this point. He’d known Nagisa long enough to know that once he set his mind on something, he could be as stubborn as Haruka (albiet more energetic). It was how he got Rei to join their team, after all.

 

And normally Rei would be roped into this sort of thing without a fight, but he had showered extraordinarily quickly after practice was over. He had then dashed off to change, mumbling something about an “engagement.” No one had really questioned it; Rei might be getting more swimming help from Rin. (And even if someone _had_ asked him, he probably would have avoided telling the truth.) Rei could be strange sometimes, they'd all learned.

 

Still, Makoto wished the other boy was here for times like this. By the time all three swimmers had changed, Haruka had expressed no more enthusiasm about “taste testing” (since it didn't seem to involve mackerel in any way) and Nagisa knew that Makoto was much more willing to be helpful. Makoto was resigned to his fate.

 

The three boys left school. Haruka began heading on his route, while Nagisa and Makoto headed towards the train station.

 

“Last chance, Haru-chan! Are you sure you don’t want to come?” Nagisa asked.

 

Haruka turned his head to look at them. “No thanks. I’ve seen what you eat. Just don’t kill Makoto.”

 

Nagisa giggled. “Of course I won’t! Then we’d have to find another backstroke swimmer.” 

 

Makoto twitched.

 

***

 

Even though Makoto was dreading whatever he was about to eat, he enjoyed spending time around Nagisa. He’d always found the younger boy’s enthusiasm charming. As they rode the train to Nagisa’s house, Nagisa did most of the talking; still, he was a great conversationalist since. He asked Makoto a lot of questions, since he loved hearing about Makoto’s younger siblings (and stories about Haruka). The train ride went quickly and they soon approached Nagisa’s home.

 

When they entered, no one else was home; Nagisa had explained that his father worked late and his mother preferred to go shopping in the late afternoon. They took off their shoes and headed to the kitchen.

 

“Have a seat at the table, Mako-chan! I’ll get everything we need,” Nagisa said, gesturing at the large table. Makoto hesitantly sat on one of the chairs. He watched as Nagisa prepared a glass of milk. “You have to close your eyes now, Mako-chan. I want you to be surprised!” Nagisa said as he set the milk in front of his friend. Makoto gulped and hesitantly shut his eyes. He could hear Nagisa opening and closing the fridge, then something being set down in front of him.

 

“You can open your eyes now, Mako-chan!” Makoto looked down at the plate in front of him and saw…

 

…cookies! There were four cookies on the plate, each next to a little notecard with the numbers 1-4.

 

Makoto must have looked surprised, because Nagisa laughed. “I hope you didn’t think I was going to serve you something dangerous!” No, of course Makoto hadn’t really thought that (except maybe a little), but he definitely didn’t expect to taste test cookies. 

 

“Did you make these, Nagisa-kun?” Makoto asked.

 

“Yup!” Nagisa beamed with pride. “My mom wanted to take some to her book club tomorrow, and she knows I love to cook so she asked me to do it. So I agreed! I just wasn’t sure which kind to make, so I wanted someone else’s opinion.”

 

“I honestly didn’t know you could cook,” Makoto said, impressed. “Personally, I’m not great at it.”

 

“When I was younger, I would hang out in the kitchen with my mom so that my sisters wouldn’t dress me up. I picked up a lot of stuff from her,” Nagisa said, sitting down across from Makoto. “Plus, good helpers always get to lick the bowl afterwards.” 

 

Makoto laughed, imagining a young Nagisa saving more cake batter than necessary so he’d have more to enjoy. “And you promise there’s no protein powder in any of these?”

 

Nagisa winked. “None at all! The ladies who are going to be eating these don’t need to grow any more muscles, after all.”

 

Makoto tried the cookies, taking one bite a time out of each of the four. Nagisa watched intently, propping his elbows up on the table and cupping his chin in his hands.

 

“Wow, Nagisa-kun! These are all great!” Makoto said, glad that he didn’t have to fudge the truth.

 

Nagisa beamed again. “I’m glad you like them! But which one should I make for tomorrow?”

 

Makoto scratched his chin in thought. “Hmm…I really like cookie 1 because it has chocolate, but I think everyone would be happy with cookie 3,” he said contemplatively. Nagisa clapped.

 

“Great pick, Mako-chan! That’s a sugar cookie, and everyone loves sugar cookies!” Nagisa stood up. “I’m going to get started now, but you’re welcome to stay and keep me company.”

 

Now that he wasn’t worried about taking a trip to the hospital, Makoto felt a lot more at ease with his younger friend. “I’d love to stay and help in any way I can,” Makoto said to Nagisa’s back as he searched through the pantry for ingredients. Something was still on Makoto's mind, however. “But I think Rei would have been much more helpful than me. I'll bet he knows all about flavor theory and the chemistry behind baking. I’m still surprised you didn’t ask him.”

 

Nagisa’s shoulders sagged at the last comment. He turned around, holding a sack of sugar; his expression was much more somber than it had been seconds ago. “I don’t think Rei-chan wants to be my friend anymore,” he said quietly, setting down the sugar on the counter.

 

“What?!” Makoto was shocked. He knew that the two second-years were as different as night and day; still, they’d been practically joined at the hip ever since Nagisa persuaded Rei into joining the swim team the previous year. “Did you two have a fight?”

 

There were a few moments of silence while Nagisa got a mixing bowl and measuring cups. “Kind of. I think I upset him…” Nagisa ducked into the pantry again, but Makoto was pretty sure he was just trying to hide his face.

 

Still, Makoto was surprised. Nagisa has given Rei a penguin-print speedo to wear and _that_ hadn’t upset him, what could have possibly happened? “Nagisa…” Makoto stood up and put his hand on Nagisa’s shoulder. Sure enough, when Nagisa turned around to look at him, Makoto could see his eyes were shimmering with tears. “Can you tell me what happened?”

 

Nagisa hesitated, silent as he put together seemingly random quantities of various ingredients. Makoto knew better than to press the issue- he’d mediated enough conflicts between the twins to know when to wait rather than force something out. (Though he almost broke the silence to ask Nagisa if he was using a recipe, because he was a little concerned at the ratio of flour to sugar-and salt?-that was going into the mixing bowl.)

 

“I made him uncomfortable,” Nagisa muttered, using a wooden spoon to mix up all the ingredients. This was news to Makoto, however; all of Nagisa’s friends knew how comfortable he was with, well, just about everything. Most of them had accepted it- Nagisa’s kindness and infectious enthusiasm made it well worth being his friend, in Makoto’s opinion. 

 

Nagisa took a deep breath and finally continued. “I…told him I had feelings for him.”

 

…oh. 

 

Well, that might be the one thing that could distress Rei.

 

Makoto hadn’t known the other boy for very long, but he knew that Rei was not great at handling emotional situations. Probably because emotions couldn’t be explained by some theory, which was Rei’s favorite way to approach any situation. Still, it surprised Makoto that Rei would have been offended by Nagisa’s feelings; the two boys seemed like such close friends, had Rei really not noticed that Nagisa had feelings for him? _This is Rei; of course he didn’t notice,_ Makoto corrected himself.

 

It wasn’t until he noticed that Nagisa had stopped stirring that Makoto also realized that he hadn’t responded yet. Even though Nagisa was much shorter than Makoto, something about the way he was standing made him seem even smaller. Usually, it was rare for Nagisa to stay still for any period of time; being quiet and still made him seem diminished.

 

“I’m sorry, Mako-chan. I don’t want you to be mad at me, too,” Nagisa murmured.

 

“Nagisa…” Makoto started. He wasn’t sure what Nagisa needed to hear most right now, but he definitely didn’t want to make Nagisa think that he would stop speaking to him also. “I’m sorry that Rei is avoiding you. But maybe he’s not mad at you. Maybe he’s just confused.”

 

“Maybe. Rei-chan loves to overthink things,” Nagisa said, swiping some of the mixed dough with his finger and tasting it thoughtfully. He added a sprinkle of something else (Makoto had stopped even trying to keep track of what had gone into the cookie dough) and stirred again.

 

“He certainly does. Almost as much as Haru loves water! So maybe he was surprised when one of his closest friends admitted something that defies logic.”

 

“‘Defies logic’? You mean, you think it’s wrong?” Nagisa asked, looking worried again.

 

“No, not like that! I just mean that emotions aren’t always logical, so it might not have made sense to Rei. He might be trying to sort things out, or maybe he just doesn’t know what to say. You should probably talk to him again soon, though,” Makoto said, hoping that he wasn’t giving terrible advice.

 

“You’re probably right, Mako-chan,” Nagisa said as he shaped the dough into balls on the cookie sheet. “Thank you for listening.

 

“And, since you’ve been such a good helper, you can lick the bowl!” Nagisa said, waving the aforementioned bowl in front of Makoto’s face.

 

“But I didn’t really do anything to help!” Makoto prosted (grabbing the bowl all the same to prevent it from flying across the room).

 

Nagisa smiled, looking much calmer than he had been. “You definitely did.” Makoto smiled back at him as he dipped his finger in the bowl and had a taste.

 

“Wow, this tastes great! I was a little worried that you weren’t using a recipe,” Makoto said.

 

“I hate using recipes, they never come out right,” Nagisa said, a little embarrassed at the compliment. “I hope they taste even better when they’re finished.”

 

As the cookies baked, Makoto insisted on helping clean up the kitchen (something he was confident he would be better at than Nagisa). Makoto hadn’t realized how tense Nagisa must have been, but he definitely seemed more relaxed; he certainly seemed to enjoy sitting and giving Makoto directions while he cleaned. 

By the time the timer dinged, the kitchen was clean and the two boys were enjoying a cup of tea. Nagisa removed the cookies from the oven and Makoto couldn’t help but notice how perfectly round they had turned out. Nagisa took two off the sheet; he handed one to Makoto and kept the other one for himself.

 

“Enjoy, Mako-chan! Tell me if it tastes good,” Nagisa told him. 

 

Makoto blew on the cookie, then took a bite. It was fantastic! “You did a great job, Nagisa.” Nagisa blushed but looked appreciative. 

 

“I’m just going to wait for them to cool before putting them in a box. My parents will probably be home soon for dinner, if you’d like to stay,” Nagisa said.

 

“No, I really should be going,” Makoto said, finishing off his cookie. Nagisa thanked Makoto for his help as he walked his friend to the door.

 

“You know,” Makoto said as he was putting on his shoes. “If you want Rei to reciprocate your feelings, give him one of these cookies. I’m sure it would help convince him.”

 

Nagisa blushed furiously as he wrapped Makoto in a tight hug, silently thanking him for his support.

**Author's Note:**

> THIS CAME TO ME IN A DREAM. Anyway, I love Makoto/Nagisa friendship and I think Makoto would be the best person to go for advice just because he gets people so well. I also headcanon that Nagisa is a surprisingly good cook, but Rei cannot stand to be in the kitchen while he's cooking because he makes such a mess (and refuses to follow a recipe).


End file.
